Who Invented the Xbox?

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Spade88Admin/Cerberus Leader

Posts : 721Join date : 2012-05-25Age : 32Location : Pittsburgh, PA

Subject: Who Invented the Xbox? Sun May 27, 2012 8:59 am

Who Invented the Xbox

Do you know who invented the Xbox? Because the Xbox is based on different technologies, no one individual invented the Xbox. Some features of the Xbox are unique to the system and new developments can be considered discoveries, but to answer the question, "Who invented the Xbox?" requires you to find many people.

Who Invented the Xbox? Origins

Before the release of the Xbox in 2001, Microsoft put two teams on the spot. The company wanted a small focus on WebTV, but at the same time, wanted to bring PC gaming to a simpler level. Microsoft entertained both teams for a couple of weeks and eventually began developing the Xbox. The Xbox wasn't Microsoft's first foray into console gaming. The company ported their Windows CE to the Sega Dreamcast, which quickly lost steam after its September 1999 launch. After many delays, the Xbox was showcased at the Game Developer's Conference in 2000. The following year, in November, the Xbox released to acclaim, especially with the help of its "killer app," Halo.

The First Xbox Team:

- Seamus Blackley came to Microsoft in February 1999 and helped formulate the initial Xbox proposal. Seamus also gathered the first members of the team and helped developers understand how they can create for the Xbox.- Kevin Bachus was the other main person responsible for bringing the Xbox from fantasy to reality. He believes that in console wars, consumers and publishers always win.- Otto Berkes has been with Microsoft for quite some time and helped with certain aspects of Windows and DirectX. He also helped initiate a special project that eventually became Media Center. As an original founder of the Xbox, he guided the way for the prototype and development.- Ted Hase was vital in pitching the concept of the Xbox.- Robbie Bach was the last person to be brought on (four months after the initial pitch). He ultimately became the Chief Xbox Officer.

Unique Features:

Any one of the above people could be the one who invented the Xbox, but they did it as a team. So what kind of features did they pitch to Microsoft that would make the Xbox unique and competitive?

- The Xbox had a hard drive, just like a computer. Games can be saved on the machine instead of on a separate memory card. Although you could purchase a memory card to save data, it was more convenient to do so directly onto a hard drive.- Because of the hard drive, the Xbox could rip CDs and save the songs on the hard drive. Some games allowed you to customize a soundtrack and would use any songs stored on the Xbox hard drive.- Sound was important to the Xbox team. Developers utilized for the first time Dolby Interactive Content Encoding Technology, which allowed game developers to use true Dolby Digital sound during gameplay and rendered cut-scenes.- The controller was nothing special-kind of a hybrid PS2 and Dreamcast controller-but it did have a breakaway spot that was a few inches from the Xbox port. If someone got a little rough or angry at a game and pulled the cord beyond its stretch-point by accident, the breakaway point would separate. This especially came in handy with Madden games.

Xbox 360:

The next generation Xbox, the 360, came with better graphics, faster performance, more hard drive space, and revamped Xbox Live. Since there was more storage, gamers could download content like videos or games to play directly. The storage was also a way to save the emulation programs that made the 360 backwards compatible with older Xbox games.

Just like its predecessor, the Xbox 360 was conceived, pitched, and developed the same way. It was "invented" by a team of programmers and engineers, so group credit should be given. And you can be assured that when it's time to create and design the next Xbox and the one after that, more than one person will be involved.